Media traffic, including audio and/or video streams, represents a large proportion, often more than half, of total traffic traversing data networks. The value of estimating quality of experience (QoE) of media sessions are well documented (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,178,633; 9,032,427; 9,037,743; 9,485,298, all assigned to NetScout Systems, Inc. of Westford, Mass.).
In recent years, there has been a dramatic rise in the use of transport layer security (TLS) in the delivery of media content over the Internet. This increase has generally been in response to concerns over the control of content delivery. Media services, such as YouTube® and Netflix®, are concerned about traffic management practices employed by network owners such as Internet providers using data without permission. These media services have increasingly turned to TLS encryption as a means to thwart traffic management methods that make use of data from the application-layer protocol and/or media payload.
The use of TLS encryption in streaming media delivery impedes conventional methods used to determine QoE of streamed media provided by such media services and to perform tasks that use QoE determinations, such as media traffic management.
While such conventional methods and systems for determining QoE have generally been considered satisfactory for their intended purpose, there is still a need in the art for improved methods and systems to determine QoE when encryption, such as TLS encryption, is used by media services. The present disclosure provides a solution for these problems.